Literary geography and the problem of the formation of geo-cultural texts (using the example of the Black Sea texts of Russian literature)

Charles Johnson's main emphasis Oxherding Tale (1982) on black written textuality. Oxherding Tale tries to achieve freedom from the hegemony of what Johnson sees as a narrow, limiting tradition of written black texts. This tradition, according to Johnson, propagandistically controls black images(1) by stereotypically depicting blacks as the victims of racist oppression and by defining black experience terms of struggle against white racism and binary opposition to whiteness. Johnson focuses on the black experience as it exists in literature(2) (Being 5), written texts, and it through the revision of the written textual tradition that Johnson tries to break its hegemony, to inscribe a revised black freedom and liberation. In Being and Race (1988), which Johnson critiques contemporary black fiction, he says that he centers his writing around a phenomenological theory and praxis; I now want to link this theory and praxis to Johnson's attempt at black textual revision and his quest for freedom and liberation. Johnson draws on the tradition of Edmund Husserl and synthesizes several phenomenologists to develop his own quirky variations on phenomenology (Being ix); Johnson's most important influence French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty,(3) from whom he takes the concept of a Lifeworld of language and experience (Being viii-ix, 44). In the context of Merleau-Ponty's Lifeworld, texts and traditions become part of an open-ended mediatory process which accepts everything and depends on never-ending interaction and change. Central for Johnson the phenomenological concept of epoche, the suspension or bracketing of presuppositions order to perceive freshly. In Oxherding Tale, bracketing applies to the black written tradition, the characters, and the reader. The written tradition must bracket narrow, propagandistic presuppositions to liberate itself. The characters need to set aside their rigid ideas and ideologies and open themselves up to fresh possibilities. And the reader should bracket preconceptions to experience the text and the author's themes. Bracketing preconceptions to replace them with new, determinate, fixed meanings not the goal, though Participating Merleau-Ponty's Lifeworld of constant linguistic interaction the goal. The linguistic Lifeworld timeless because it incorporates language from the past and present, constantly makes the present the future, and, at the same time, enfolds the present and future back into the past. Johnson says that, the words of Merleau-Ponty's The Prose of the World, the Lifeworld is the trespass of oneself upon the other and of the other upon me.... Why else do we fling books into the fire if not because,... deep within our depths, the writer leading us a direction we know inevitable but toward which we sometimes do not wish to go, especially if it will . . . displace us from our fondest prejudices? To read to inhabit the role and real place of others; to write a stranger experience yet, for it involves a corresponding act of self-surrender such that my perceptions and experiences are allowed to coincide with those who came before me and despoiled words, shaped their sense and use . . . . (Being 39)(4) Johnson's phenomenology, then, one which he situates his text a system of intertexts that mediate and change that text, as his text mediates and changes the intertexts. The black text does not maintain its unique black perspective on white oppression, black victimization, black struggle, and black binary opposition to whiteness. The black text gets influenced by white perspectives, and by all the perspectives inscribed among the intertexts. But at the same time, the black text provides counter-influences to the portrayals of blackness set forth by whites and others. Johnson wants to liberate the black text from its narrow, limited black perspective so that it can explore its larger spiritual and psychological potential, part of which Johnson finds the black world's unexplored embarrassment of rich, contradictory material (Being 11). …

Aim. The purpose of the paper is to develop the concept of geocultural texts on the example of the Black Sea text of Russian literature.Methodology. Various concepts of local texts based on the research of Russian literature are analyzed. Problems are identified from the point of view of historical and cultural geography. The research relies on the use of such methods as the method of system analysis, historical and geographical method, the cartography method, the mapping method, the semiotic method and the comparative-descriptive method.Results. The basic provisions of the concept of geo-cultural texts, including their development and interaction, are formulated. The role of geographical imagination in the formation of typical geo-cultural texts is revealed. The primary grounds for the formation of multiple geo-cultural texts are investigated on the example of the Black Sea text of Russian literature.Research implication. The concept of geo-cultural texts on the example of literary works is proposed. The primary material on the Black Sea text of Russian literature is summarized using the concept of geo-cultural texts. The problems of examining local texts within the framework of historical and cultural geography are outlined. The proposed concept of geo-cultural texts can be used to study various regional texts, i.e. both Russian and other cultures.

The Caspian and Black Seas are adjacent inland bodies of water, each with its unique palaeogeographic history. The Black Sea has been connected to the World Ocean throughout its Quaternary history. In contrast, the Caspian Sea has been completely isolated since the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene. Since then, the Caspian Sea has occasionally discharged its excess waters through the Manych Depression into the Azov-Black Sea Basin. As a result of this isolation, unique species have developed in the Caspian Sea. The transgressive-regressive cycles of the Caspian Sea are associated with global and regional climate fluctuations since its sea level depends on its water balance. Due to the penetration of Caspian species into the Manych Depression and further into the Azov-Black Sea Basin, it is possible to determine episodes of its transgressive water discharge, assess the characteristics of the existing basins, and correlate these episodes not only with events within the Mediterranean—Black Sea—Caspian corridor but also with global events. The study of the connection between the Black and Caspian Sea basins dates back to the 18th century. Thereafter, numerous publications have addressed various aspects of the palaeogeography of the region. However, the events within these two basins during Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5) and their scales and characteristics remain debated. This research focused on studying the MIS 5 Epoch, which includes the Holocene-analogous Eemian interglacial period and the transition to the Early Weichselian glacial Epoch. To reconstruct the events in the Black Sea—Manych Depression—Caspian Sea during MIS 5, we conducted lithological, malacofaunistic, and geochronological analysis on six borehole sections in the Northern Caspian, four in the Manych Depression, and three in the northeastern sector of the Black Sea to identify events that occurred in basins, assess their environmental characteristics, conditions of sedimentation and time frames. We have discovered that the Karangatian transgression (analogous to the Eemian transgression in the Mediterranean Sea) ingressed into the Manych Depression 125–110 ka BP (MIS 5e–d) during its maximum phase and formed a gulf there with a water salinity of up to 18‰, featuring Mediterranean mollusc fauna. Later, the waters of the Hyrcanian transgression of the Caspian Sea exceeded the water divide of the Azov-Black Sea and Caspian Sea basins and began to spill over into the Manych Depression. This influx of water resulted in the desalination of the sea gulf that was present there, reducing its salinity to values of less than 14‰. This event occurred around 110–105 ka BP (MIS 5c). The Karangatian waters eventually left the Manych Depression, but Hyrcanian waters continued to flow into the Black Sea until ~ 100 ka BP. This is evidenced by characteristic Hyrcanian species, such as Didacna cristata and D. subcatillus, found in the upper part of Karangatian sediments in the Manych Depression and on the northeastern shelf of the Black Sea. The Hyrcanian water discharge marked the initial flow of Caspian water into the Black Sea during the late Pleistocene, occurring unilaterally without any exchange between these two basins. Reconstructing the transition from the interglacial to the glacial period during MIS 5 can provide valuable insights into the expected changes in the Black Sea—Manych Depression—Caspian Sea system as we move from the current Holocene interglacial into a new glacial period.

The Poetics of Home:

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 244:139-152 (2002) - doi:10.3354/meps244139 Seascape biodiversity patterns along the Mediterranean and the Black Sea: lessons from the biogeography of benthic polychaetes Christos Arvanitidis*, Gerard Bellan, Panos Drakopoulos, Vasilis Valavanis, Costas Dounas, Athanasios Koukouras, Anastasios Eleftheriou Institute of Marine Biology of Crete, Department of Technology and Management of Marine Environment, 71003 Herakleion, Crete, Greece *Email: arvanitidis@imbc.gr ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to investigate seascape biodiversity patterns along the Mediterranean and the Black Sea through the study of the benthic polychaete biogeography of the region. A set of non-parametric multivariate analyses and recently developed diversity indices were performed on the benthic polychaete inventories of the areas of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Both the numbers of species and the multivariate analyses demonstrate a west-east zoogeocline, shown by the decreasing number of species and by the multivariate similarity pattern of the areas. The performance of the Œsecond-stage¹ multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) shows, when species information is aggregated to genera, results belonging practically to the same similarity pattern, independent of the similarity coefficients utilized. The same similarity pattern is derived when species information is aggregated to the zoogeographical categories of amphi-Atlantic, Atlanto-Mediterranean, cosmopolitan and endemic species. BIO-ENV analysis reveals a large number of geographic, climatic and trophic variables to be highly correlated with the similarity pattern derived from the various taxonomic/zoogeographical categories. The synergy, however, of the environmental variables is best reflected in the case of the endemic Mediterranean species. The latter category is considered as the critical zoogeographic category with respect to providing information on the evolutionary history of the taxon in the region. The application of the average taxonomic distinctness and the variation of taxonomic distinctness indices resulted in a diversity ranking of the areas, which appears to be independent of the number of species hosted in each area. However, this is not the case for the phylogenetic diversity (PD) index. Additionally, the former 2 indices indicate that the benthic polychaete species-pool, hosted in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas, may well serve as a useful basis for future comparisons in environmental assessment studies. Finally, results from the application of the area-diversity formula show that the equilibrium model can be applicable for the endemic benthic polychaetes of the region: the number of endemic species can be considered as a function of the degree of isolation of the area from the source region against the degree of within-area isolated habitats. KEY WORDS: Biodiversity · Biogeography · Polychaeta · Mediterranean · Black Sea Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 244. Online publication date: November 29, 2002 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2002 Inter-Research.

The Black Sea name (Black Sea, Mer Noire, Mare Nero, Schwarze Mer, Cernoe More, Kara Deniz) is given recently, dating since the 14th century and has no connection with the Ancient names. In the early Greek antiquity, the Black Sea was called Pontus Axeinus (“inhospitable sea”) and later was called Pontus Euxinos (“hospitable sea”). The first accurate bathymetric surveys of the Black Sea were executed by R. Gotie in 1820 and 1821, the results being published in 1822. The 1970s witnessed the impressive monographs The Black Sea. Geology, Chemistry and Biology, edited under the coordination of Egon T. Degens and David A. Ross, as well as the results of Glomar Challenger expedition. One of the first and most interesting syntheses on Black Sea is owed to Grigore Antipa who, in 1942, published the first volume of Black Sea monography. The Knorr expedition of 1988 was the first one to deepen the knowledge on Black Sea based on a thorough measurement. Currently, research of the Black Sea ecosystem is being undertaken in the framework of national, regional and international projects.

Incorporation of the fossil record and molecular markers into studies of biological invasions provides new historical perspectives on the incidence of natural and human-mediated invasions of nonindigenous species (NIS). Palaeontological, phylogeographic, and molecular evidence suggests that the natural, multiple colonizations of the Caspian basin via transient connections with the Black Sea and other basins played an important role in shaping the diversity of Caspian fauna. Geographically isolated, conspecific Ponto-Caspian lineages that currently inhabit fragmented habitats in the Ponto-Caspian region show limited genetic divergence, implying geologically recent episodes of gene flow between populations during the Pliocene to Pleistocene. Several molluscan lineages in the Caspian Sea may have descended from Lake Pannon stock before the Late Miocene isolation of the Caspian depression, about 5.8 million years ago. Anthropogenic activities during the 20th century were responsible for a 1800-fold increase in the rate of establishment of new aquatic species in the Caspian Sea compared to the preceding two million years of natural colonization. The observed success of NIS invasions during the 20th century was due primarily to humanmediated transport mechanisms, which were dominated by shipping activities (44%). Human-mediated species transfer has been strongly asymmetrical, toward the Volga Delta and Caspian Sea from or through Black and Azov Seas. Global and regional trade, particularly that mediated by commercial ships, provides dispersal opportunities for nonindigenous invertebrates, indicating that future invasions in the Caspian Sea are anticipated.

The author reconstructs the literary and historical context of the first printed Siberian translation, Pankraty Sumarokov’s Uchilishche lyubvi (School of Love) (1789), in order to reveal its place and status in Russian prose of the late 18th century. The article is polemicises against traditional interpretations of the book (V. Pavlov, V. Rak, and others). This article is the first attempt to consider the novel within the framework of contextual and structural-typological analysis against the background of the peculiarities and functions of translated literature. The author shows that both original and translated Russian texts existing in ‘the force field’ of the European novel (P. Tallemant, S. Richardson, J.-J. Rousseau, J. G. B. Pfeil, L.-S. Mercier) tend to distance themselves from it. This is revealed in a variety of ways, ranging from liberal translations and intertextual re-interpretations to creative polemics and rejection. However, this does not deprive them of characteristic features like the uniformity of genre poetics (the system of motifs, typology of the characters, literary space, and plot structure). The meeting place of European and Russian cultural traditions in School of Love is treated on the level of micropoetics: geographic images (England, France, and Spain), the plot of Circe and Odysseus, the biographical context of Sumarokov’s creative work, etc. Additionally, School of Love is analysed in the context of Sumarokov’s poetic works resulting from his reading experience of French literature (La Fontaine, Voltaire). The article characterizes School of Love as a quaint phenomenon of the Russian literature of the late 18th century: an ‘English novel’ which is a Russian translation of a French version of a German story. Simultaneously, it is a case study of P. Sumarokov’s individual creative strategy as shaped in the Irtysh, prevrashchayushchiysya v Ipokrenu, with the underlying idea of interaction between the Russian and European traditions, the meeting of ‘friend’ and ‘foe’. The article is based on unique texts of 18th-century Russian literature kept in the Library of the Russian Academy of Science (St Petersburg).

The article analyzes the geopolitical ideas of the leaders of the Ukrainian liberation movement in the early – mid-twentieth century. It is noted that its leading figures pointed out the strategic geopolitical position of Ukraine between Asian and European civilizations and the necessity of its separation from the Russian influence. For instance, D. Dontsov emphasized the importance of building a superpowerful Ukrainian state above the Black Sea with a continental international value for the entire Europe. Hrushevsky has actively supported and contributed to the development of the geopolitical project of Baltic-Black Sea axis. The scientist saw the objective belonging of Ukraine to the Western civilization, but pointed out that the geographical features of Ukraine, namely its waterways, led to the Black Sea as a communication center. Among the Ukrainian researchers who supported the idea of “Intermarium”, one should name Z. Pelenskyi, S. Rudnytskyi, S. Tomashivskyi, and Yu. Lypa. Z. Pelenskyi, in particluar, identified three main directions of foreign activity of the OUN and the future of the Ukrainian state: Galician-Balkan, Caspian-Caucasian, and the Belarusian-Baltic one. That is, in order to guarantee its strategic importance, the future Ukrainian state had to expand its influence in Central and Eastern Europe. Another researcher, Stepan Rudnytskyi, substantiated the significance of the Black Sea for our country from the historical perspective, and outlined possible scenarios of Ukraine’s development, foreseeing the establishment of communication through naval channels between the Black, Baltic, and Caspian Seas. Perceiving Ukraine as a geographical concept, Stepan Tomashivskyi focused on the historical consequences of its location in the heart of Europe, which led to a constant struggle of other countries in its territory and its indissoluble link with the Black Sea. Another researcher, Yurii Lypa, emphasized the singularity of Ukrainians as an independent nation, their purpose to be free and happy; focused his attention on the geopolitical orientation of Ukraine at the southern-northern line. Summing up, it should be noted that the majority of Ukrainian politicians and thinkers of that time stressed the importance of clarifying the geopolitical strategy of Ukraine, which was to be aimed at European countries and geopolitical southern-northern line since it was the axis of Ukrainian lands. They also critically evaluated possible alliance with Russia and emphasized the need to weaken the geopolitical influence of Moscow with all possible means, pointing to its chauvinistic and imperialist aspirations.

Surface temperature of the Black Sea increased due to climate change during the 20th century and continues to rise. Here we present by in situ data‐corrected remote‐sensed SST data covering a 34‐year period (1982–2015). Using a linear black box model, we predicted the Black Sea surface temperature (SST) up to 2100. During the 34‐year study period, we detected a 0.64 °C increase in SST per decade. The largest monthly fluctuations in SST were during late summer (August) and autumn (November). The rate of SST increase has almost caught up with the worst climate change scenario for the future. At the end of this century, the relative increase in average Black Sea SST is predicted to be 5.1 °C. In summary, our data show sea surface warming during recent decades, and we predict that this warming is likely to continue under the present environmental condition. The warming of the sea seems to also influence the amount of caught anchovies in the Black Sea. After 1993, the amount of captured anchovies in the southern Black Sea was drastically decreased with increased SST.

The author of the article has been analysing the problems, which had important significance for the new and modern history and for the system of international relations in the Central Europe, i.e. the realisation of the project of uniting of the Baltic and Black Seas as a single political project. It was the well-known idea of the Intermarium, which was popular in the political history for a number of decades and was used by the Polish foreign policy. However, a similar idea was also born in Russia during the Seven Years’ War in the years of 1756-1763. The idea of uniting of the Baltic and Black Seas in terms of the single political 111 project was also relevant in the 20th century before the beginning of the World War II.However, after the end of the war it has gained new technocratic meaning in theUSSR. In USSR the project of the uniting the Baltic and Black Seas was being implemented, into which this country had a relatively easy exit after the integration of the Baltic states by means of the creation of water transport route from the Dnieper. The beginning of the realisation of this idea was building of The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station and the Southern-Ukrainian and Northern-Crimea channels. In terms of the realisation of this project there were also plans to create the connection of the Dnieper channel with the Azov Sea. In the process of the discussions related to the question of the expediency of building of the Southern-Ukrainian and Northern-Crimea channels, which took place in 1952, the building of the channel uniting Dnieper with the Azov Sea remained among the top questions for discussions. But there was one controversial question related to the orientation of the before mentioned channel, i.e. according to the Meridian or parallelly, that is parallelly to the Sivash, which separated the Crimea from the mainland. In 1954 the Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian SSR suggested the project of the uniting of the Baltic Sea with the Black Sea in terms of the creating of the Waterways System in the European part of the USSR. All technical projects related to the uniting of the Baltic Sea with the Black Sea with the help of highways remained to be the ideas only. However, one can notice the strategical importance of the development of these ideas and the geopolitical role of the Dnieper river and Sivash, which are strategically interrelated projects.

Introduction. The relevance of the research lies in the need of modern Russian pedagogical science to master the positive pedagogical experience accumulated by domestic education in previous historical periods. The aim of the study is to analyze and evaluate the pedagogical ideas of a prominent Russian democratic teacher of the second half of the 19th century, one of the founders of the methodology of teaching Russian language and literature in secondary school Vasily Ivanovich Vodovozov (1825-1886). Materials and methods. In the course of the research, the author used a comparative method and a method of retrospective analysis, an axiological methodological approach. The use of these research tools made it possible to identify the value content of Vodovozov's methodological and practical pedagogical activities. Results. The methodological and practical pedagogical activity of V. I. Vodovozov was of great importance for the development and implementation of advanced teaching methods of the Russian language and literature in the practice of the Russian secondary school. Russian methodologist Vodovozov was the first methodologist to substantiate the cognitive and educational importance of literature for the development of a student's personality. His works (textbooks, articles, etc.) became the fundamental basis for the development of methods of teaching Russian language and literature in Russian gymnasiums. Fruitful methodological work was carried out by him as a teacher and organizer of teacher courses. His wife E. N. Vodovozova made a significant contribution to the development of memoiristics, Russian preschool pedagogy and pedagogy of primary education. KEYWORDS Discussion. Leading Russian teachers (K. D. Ushinsky, D. D. Semenov, etc.) highly appreciated the importance of V. I. Vodovozov's personality and the influence of his works on the development of Russian pedagogy and schools. An objective, comprehensive analysis of the methodological and practical pedagogical activity of Vodovozov gives reason to conclude that it was progressive in nature and had an impact on the development of the professional pedagogical environment, which, in particular, explained his suspension from work at school and teacher courses under the tsarist regime. His most significant works, such as "Russian Literature", "Ancient Russian Literature", "Practical Slavic Grammar", "The Ideal of a national teacher", "A new plan for the organization of a national school", "Literature in samples and analyses with an explanation of the general properties of the composition and the main types of prose and poetry", "New Russian Literature", "Ancient Russian Literature", "Practical Slavic grammar", "The Ideal of a national teacher", "A new plan for the organization of a national school" and others were actively used in school practice; they had a certain impact on the development of Russian education and on the formation of methodology of teaching Russian literature in a Russian school. Conclusion. V. I. Vodovozov is one of the largest Russian methodologist teachers of the second half of the XIX century, the author of a large number of works that laid the foundations of the methodology of teaching Russian language and literature in secondary schools. His theoretical and methodological works remain, in general, relevant, and serve as an important source for studying the state of education in Russia. Their further study seems to be a rather urgent task of the modern Russian history of pedagogy.

The article is devoted to summing up the results of the international scientific conference “Russian Literature and National Sovereignty of the 18th — 19th Centuries” held at the IMLI RAS on October 13–15, 2020. The problem of the scientific forum is regarded as one of the central problems of humanitarian knowledge in Russia. The principal task of the conference is defined as the need for the first time to present in all the richness and positive content of the relationship between the Russian literary classics and the Russian sovereignty of the 18th — 19th centuries. Modern methodological approaches, responsible assimilation of facts allow us to assert that it is precisely in accordance with the national state and its ideals that Russian literature of the 18th — 19th centuries. Modern methodological approaches, responsible mastering of the facts allow asserting that this is a nation state and its ideals in accordance with which, the Russian literature of the 18th — 19th centuries reaches its prophetic sound, full contemplation of the world, aesthetic perfection. At the same time, the full-blooded development of Russian literature is in Russia during the imperial period the most important factor in the prosperity of the nation state, the purification and approval of state ideals. The article analyses the main directions of the conference, the problem-thematic range of the event, which made it possible to demonstrate the real results of research work of foreign, Moscow and Russian scientific schools, for the first time to formulate the problem of “Russian literature and statehood” as an independent and promising direction of scientific research.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the localization and reconstruct the potestary symbols of Black Sea ports that were subject to the sovereign authority of the Golden Horde in the 14th century. Based on this analysis, the research assesses the potential for the formation of the Golden Horde’s thalassocracy. Research materials: The research draws from various sources, including the Castilian “Libro del conosçimiento de todos los reynos” from the 14th century, preserved in four copies Z, N, S, and R. Additionally, it utilizes compass maps of the Black Sea created by Venetian masters Petrus Vesconte (1313), Perrino Vesconte (1321), and Mallorca’s cartographer Angelino Dulcert (1330, 1339). Byzantine periplus records of the Black Sea from the 14th to 15th centuries, Claudius Ptolemy’s “Cosmography” in a revision by Byzantine monk Maximus Planudes around 1300 AD, as well as EDB and GIS data from Tabula imperii Bizantini are also incorporated. Results and novelty of the research: The analysis of the Castilian ”Libro del conosçimiento de todos los reynos” has unveiled a previously unrecognized structure: the “Black Sea’s vexillographic portolan chart.” This portolan chart provides comprehensive descriptions of the locations of ports along the Black Sea coast, indicating the sovereign’s standards of the rulers of these port cities. In the majority of cases, the sovereign mentioned is Uzbek khan (1313–1341), under whose rule the original and now lost holotype of this remarkable portolan was compiled. Both the port names and the depictions of standards in this portolan reflect geographical and vexillographical inaccuracies of the time, as acknowledged by the Castilian compilers of the four preserved copies. By identifying the topoi and standards described in the “Black Sea’s vexillographic portolan,” a reconstruction of the Black Sea’s map, which includes all ports, shipping routes, and symbols of power related to the Golden Horde sovereign’s authority, was achieved. The final observations indicate that over 80% of the Black Sea waters were under the control of the Golden Horde, even during the reign of Uzbek khan, offering a unique opportunity for the emergence of a new thalassocracy.

The article examines the typification and gives a brief description of underwater archaeological sites of ancient and medieval cultural heritage, the main types of ancient shores, as well as the most significant objects studied so far in the space of the geoecosystems of the Northern Black Sea (GESNBS) and the marine geoecosystem (MGES) of the shelf from the Danube delta to the Berezan estuary and the island of Berezan. The results of research on archaeological sites located in this territory are presented. A preliminary reconstruction of the shores that existed in this part of the Northern Black Sea Coast has been made. Nowadays, these archaeological sites are partially or completely located in the areas of the Black Sea shelf and its basin subsystems of a lower level (bays, ducts, estuaries, deltas, etc.), mainly at the boundary of their aquatic (from the Latin aqua — water) (AQESUS) and geological (GEOESUS) subsystems of the MGES shelf. The main objective of this article, which the authors set while writing it, was to show the potential of antique and medieval cultural heritage, which was formed in the relevant ancient times in the space of paleogeoecosystems of the Northern Black Sea but is now preserved in the MGES space of the modern Black Sea shelf from the Danube River to the Berezan estuary. Among the main tasks of this article is a brief description of the already known archaeological, in particular underwater, sites of antique and medieval cultural heritage, some other interesting underwater archaeological artifacts, and their future imposition on the modern geological, geographical and bathymetric framework with reference to certain AQESUS and GEOESUS of MGES of the Black Sea. This is important not only for historical and archaeological reconstructions but also for solving the problems of in-depth knowledge of the causes and consequences of changes in the paleogeological and modern geoecological conditions of the Azov-Black Sea basin and GESNBS shelf, dynamics and directions of their development. Such research is also important both for the development of public culture, expansion of the historical consciousness of the population of Ukraine and for solving some economic problems in the development of communities in the Northern Black Sea region by attracting investment to the development of coastal and underwater tourism, predicting the impact of many geoecological processes inherent in this studied region on the peculiarities of the conditions of search, identification, use and preservation of the historical and archaeological potential of antique and medieval cultural heritage located in the space of GESNBS and MGES of the modern Black Sea shelf as their anthropogenic component, affecting the lives of residents of the region under consideration, from ancient times until the present.